11 April 2012

Manola asked me to paint a dream her friend had sent to her last new years day. Here's what I was given:

Seems like it should be easy, right? I've certainly painted more then my share of dogs for the Panda... so why are still tricky for me.

I did not want this to be a cartoon dog, I promise "real paintings" here, not mall-like caricatures. I decided right off that the dog's interaction with the hair dryer had to be awkward. The dog needed to be clumsily dragging the thing around with it's best effort of making it seem scary to make it sad and ridiculous. A Scooby Doo-like dog using a hair dryer as a gun is wacky and feels more like an ill conceived tattoo (in the same vain as the Tasmanian Devil lifting weights).

Because of the subject matter, I thought this painting would work well with a design-like aesthetic similar to theoriginal "panda licking on a light bulb" painting. A black and white boxer fit the bill. I wanted it to look like it was made fast and have a very limited color palate.

I also chose a boxer as the result of a series of failures with other dogs. I did some preliminary paintings (though not originally intended to be preliminary) with more common dogs but nothing seemed to work. I wanted to use line and keep it simple and clean. Painting long haired dogs is like rendering the anatomy of a mop head, something is underneath but God knows what. I needed a dog where you could make out where it's legs meet it's body and recognize that it has a neck.

Upon rereading this request, I realize that I left the "owies" out. I was tempted to go back and put some wounds in. Red spots on the dog would work well color-wise with the red hair dryer. However, the presence of the power cord in the dog's mouth may suggest that the dog is begging to be whipped.. and that is just ridiculously sad. Let's just imagine that the "owies" are on the dog's other side...

Commissions...

Please contact me if you would like to commission a tiny painting.I'll paint pretty much anything. Hence, the Paint on Demand moniker. Email me and I'll quote you a price.

john@johnmegas.com

All of the paintings here are made by commission in the tiny format of 3.5"x5.5", acrylic on board.Every painting is signed on the back.

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Why is John Megas Making All of These Tiny Paintings?

More than just being a funny blog of tiny paintings, Panda Licking on a Light Bulb is the public face of a project by painter, printmaker and art critic John Megas as a way of engaging audiences in the process of making art and challenging himself as a painter. (It is also a funny blog of tiny paintings).

John will paint any subject matter, in any style, with any requested color scheme. Be specific or vague. All Paintings are made postcard sized, 3.5"x5.5". The flexibility here goes beyond the realm of taking a regular commission. John's goal is to let the purchaser have as much creative control as possible. (Or as little as they want).

Along the way, John blogs about his journey through each painting, posting about the process and sometimes with preliminary drawings, often with ridiculous stories.

Images of the finished pieces are posted and the actual paintings are mailed to their purchasers/collaborators.